


The Darkness Exposes

by Yulicia



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, brought to you by the first order french toast, heavy on the hurt, hux and his mum being upsetting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 17:32:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12822531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yulicia/pseuds/Yulicia
Summary: With his curiosity too strong to resist Ren enters one of Hux's dreams.What he finds inside makes him wish he hadn't.





	The Darkness Exposes

The transport to Starkiller Base was, to put it kindly, less than ideal. Ren had been crammed into a tiny, rickety little shuttle packed tight with people. On board were General Hux, a number of his higher ranked officers, and Ren himself. The First Order had limited resources, having had most of their efforts be given to the creation of Starkiller in the first place. Subsequently, each shuttle had to be pressed to its absolute limits. Ren understood the necessity, but that didn’t mean he liked it.

It was suffocating having so many people so close to him. His training with Snoke had often left him bereft of any human contact for huge amounts of time and to have so much of it all at once was rather overwhelming. His helmet, which he’d assumed would help calm his discomfort, didn’t seem to be helping at all. His attention was too preoccupied on the two bodies closely pressed against him on the transport’s bench on which they sat.

On one side of him was an officer – a Major, if Ren was remembering correctly. He didn’t know her name but that wasn’t unusual. He didn’t make a habit of learning each and every name within the First Order. He’s sure that he would have driven himself mad if he tried.

On the other was General Hux, a man that infinitely fascinated and frustrated him. From their first contact Hux had been nothing but the epitome of professionalism, even in the face of Ren’s chaos. Ren almost envied his clearly faked calm - it was an impressive act. An act that only seemed to rile Ren up even more when he was met face to face with it.

The officer to his side was busy on her datapad, the blue light blinking in a cacophony of dancing numbers. Ren assumed it was a report she was behind on. He didn’t really care. He was far more concentrated on what was happening to his right.

Hux was, to Ren’s surprise, fast asleep. His head was tipped, lolling down against his shoulder. His arms were crossed tightly, locked across his chest. His ever present sneer was softened in his rest, his face looking years younger than it did when he was awake. Ren caught himself staring at the General, trying to deduce exactly why seeing the First Order’s fierce General so peaceful bothered him so much. It was too strange, too uncomfortable, like a Wookie who spoke Basic.

Hux stirred and Ren worried that he might wake up. Thankfully, he didn’t, instead he only shifted slightly in his seat and drifted back into slumber. He mumbled something unintelligible, something Ren doubted were even words, let alone words found in Galactic Basic. Hux’s eyes moved franticly below his eyelids and it seemed as though something was plaguing the General’s sleep.

Ren was then struck by a thought. Hux was dreaming. It seemed an impossible feat – Ren wasn’t even sure the ruthless man was even capable of such things. He distantly wondered what he could possibly be dreaming about. The destruction of the Resistance? Total galactic annihilation? Mountains of filled field reports?  The possibilities were endless. Hux mumbled something again and curiosity gnawed at Ren’s chest, making the back of his neck tingle.

He glanced around at the others in the shuttle to see their reactions but found himself sorely disappointed. Not one of them seemed to be paying as much attention to the General as he was. He glad then for the mask, feeling a slight heat rising to his cheeks.

He turned back to Hux and thought for a moment. He could, with the Force that he controlled, observe Hux’s dream. However, he wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to. Hux’s mind had always been organised and soothing when he’d brushed it before but minds were strange creatures in sleep. There was no organisation in a dream and he always left them with a vague sense of nausea.

Yet, still his curiosity lingered.

He sat for what felt like an eternity waiting fighting an internal battle with his mind and his heart before he made his decision. He closed his eyes, blocking out the press of the Major next to him and focusing on grounding himself within the Force. He breathed slowly and deeply, pressing against the barrier he knew blocked him from Hux’s mind. It broke quickly, opening almost willingly for him, and he was thrown into Hux’s mind.

Inside it was foggy, untamed and unclear. He was in a room, plain but clean. There was a table in the middle of the room, small and simple. At the table sat a woman with long, braided auburn hair and a kind face. On her lap was a little boy with wild ginger hair. He was so small, probably no older than 4 years old. Ren stood on the outskirts of the dream, watching the scene play out.

The boy shifted, restless in his mother’s lap.

“Armie, darling, what’s wrong?” The woman asked. Her voice was soft but her accent strange. It wasn’t one Ren recognised.

The boy brought his hands up, resting them against his mother’s chest. His little fingers gripped tightly at the fabric of her dress there, holding on as though if he did not then she would fly away. “Don’t want to go with him,” the boy mumbled.

The woman smiled, though her eyes were filled with pain. “I know, sweetheart, but you can’t stay with me forever.” The woman breathed heavily, the sound wavering. “Please don’t be upset, Armie, I can’t bear it.”

The boy only clung tighter.

The woman looked up, turning her face to the ceiling, blinking quickly. There were tears in her eyes, though she had not yet let them spill over. Her hand found the back of her son’s head, resting comfortably there. She carded her fingers through the boy’s hair and Ren felt the love in the touch as if it was being done to him. He shivered. That was almost the strangest thing about observing a dream; emotions were so uninhibited that they often bled over to him.

“Why don’t I make you your favourite thing to eat? Would that cheer you up?”

The boy paused, thinking, and then nodded weakly. It drew a small smile from the woman.

The dream became scattered, jumping quickly ahead. Ren was immediately bombarded with the taste of something sweet and heavy as well as the sudden overwhelming sensation of comfort, of love, of _home._ Ren gasped, almost losing his grip on the dream. He found his own heart aching, remembering when he had last felt that very feeling himself. Anger filled him at the memory of Han and Leia, frustrated at both the dream and his own mind for bringing such weakness for them to his attention.

The boy sat at the table, slowly munching at a piece of thick toast, heavy with milk and eggs. _Lost bread_ the dream provided, the voice startlingly similar to the woman’s, though the accent was closer to that of Hux’s own. The desert was coated in a heavy layer of sweet syrup and topped with plump, red berries. From the sensations the dream provided he knew they were tart, cutting through the sweetness of sticky syrup. There was an immense pleasure pouring from the simple little dish and Ren found himself struggling to keep a hold again.

“Better?” The woman asked, capturing Ren’s attention once more. His grip on the dream tightened, his precarious hold solidifying once more.

The boy nodded, his cheeks full with toast. He still seemed somewhat sad but he lapped at the simple pleasure in that wonderful way children tended to. There was a glob of syrup hanging from his lips and his mother leaned over to wipe at his mouth with a napkin. The boy giggled and Ren felt that light tingling feeling again, knowing it was not his reaction to the dream but Hux’s.  

The woman took a heavy breath. “You know I love you, don’t you?”

The boy looked up. “Of course, mama.”

She smiled, her cheeks turning rosy.

The dream warped again, the foundation of the house beginning to shake. Ren was engulfed by a feeling of crippling panic, a darkness overtaking the scene. He felt Hux’s fear as though it were his own. There was such hopeless to it. It was awful. The scene morphed and he saw the flashes of sand, of a larger, taller man who to the little boy had seemed like a giant, and a quick stab of pain.

Ren was thrown from the dream suddenly; jolting from the trance he had entered. He blinked, quickly regaining his bearings. He turned to Hux, seeing that he was awake. That must’ve been why he’d been thrown from the dream: it had ended.

Hux had a strange look on his face. His scowl had returned but there was a lost look in his eyes. As he looked out onto the ship, looking at his crew packed in the tiny shuttle, his face fell. In mere moments Hux had seemed to remember where he was and have been met with the disappointing realisation that his dream wasn’t real. Ren felt his chest constrict – he knew the feeling intimately and would not wish it upon his worst enemy.

Hux caught Ren’s eye, looking at him warily. Ren said nothing, only reached out a steady hand and laid it on Hux’s knee, squeezing gently. Hux’s mouth opened slightly in a silent gasp and he looked at Ren with understanding. Hux let his hand fall to rest on top of Ren’s hand, his own grip weak and unassuming.

Ren looked away, but his hand remained. His let his thumb run back and forth soothingly, a flimsy replacement for the adoring touch he had felt in his dream. He assumed Hux would remove the hand himself, disgusted at Ren’s touch. But, to Ren’s delight and surprise, it wasn’t until Starkiller that he was forced by the need to leave the shuttle that his hand left Hux’s leg. It seemed as though the measly comfort was enough, an ocean of fresh water to man dying of thirst.

This was likely to change some things between them. There was an understanding now. Where Ren might have felt uncomfortable with the notion of a connection to Hux before, now he found himself rather enthralled by it.

 _It seemed_ , Ren thought, _they’d both had enough of their share of pain._

**Author's Note:**

> I'm stardestroyervigilance on tumblr!


End file.
